Now, as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant assigned to a mountain specialty detachment of Washington Army National Guard's own 1st Battalion, 19th Special Forces (Airborne), he is re-learning the skills of working in a vertical environment.

    The soldiers hit the ground - literally - on the first day with an airborne operation into Coolidge Drop Zone, near Tucson. Starting off with indoor rock wall work to assess the level of individual proficiency, the training progressed to real rock faces in the hills nearby. Other training covered advanced rope work, movement in a mountain environment, and even climbing at night using their night vision goggles (NVGs).

     According to one of the instructors, "We're not here to do sport climbing; we're here to learn military mountaineering. While some of the skills are similar, the focus is on tactical applicability."

     Midway through the week, the Battalion Commander, LTC Telleson, visited to observe the training. In true Special Forces spirit, LTC Telleson donned a climbing harness and trained alongside the soldiers of his command. Gaining an appreciation for the physical demands of tasks at hand, the commander left for his headquarters in Utah with a renewed sense of his teams' capabilities.

     The training was a great success. All of the students met the requirements and expressed a desire for more advanced training in the future.

     One of the Instructors, himself an avid civilian climber, looks to the future, saying, "Living in the Pacific Northwest, we have a number of excellent areas to conduct mountain training. I'm looking forward to this fall so that we can do some alpine work as well!"